Maverick Vinales surpassed Jorge Martin’s record lap during practice to secure the first position in the MotoGP races at the Circuit of the Americas this weekend. The Aprilia rider achieved an impressive time of 2:00.864s, putting him three tenths ahead of rookie Pedro Acosta and Marc Marquez from Gresini Ducati. Acosta will start on the front row in both the Sprint and main race, as his time was over a second faster than the next KTM bike, while Marquez leads the Ducati team. Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini completed the top five, with current points leader Jorge Martin settling for sixth place despite his outstanding performance in previous practice sessions. Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro suffered a late crash but managed to secure seventh place, followed by Fabio Di Gianantonio and Franco Morbidelli to complete the third row of the grid. Despite a challenging start to the season, Marco Bezzechi secured a good start for the VR46 team. Jack Miller and Alex Marquez finished 11th and 12th, respectively, in the Q1 session. Trackhouse Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez and Miguel Oliveria narrowly missed the chance to advance to Q2, as did Yamaha. However, Alex Rins surprised everyone by outperforming his teammate Fabio Quartararo and securing 15th place, while Quartararo suffered a late crash in the final moments of the session. Brad Binder had an unlucky afternoon, crashing on his first lap and finishing 17th on the starting grid. GasGas KTM’s Augusto Fernandez qualified in 18th place, facing a challenging weekend overall. Johann Zarco once again stood out as the top Honda rider, with 2020 world champion Joan Mir following closely. Takaaki Nakagami and Luca Marini completed the grid.
